Local photographer Eddy Matoud stumbled across this incredibly rare bird on Thursday, May 9. Once the dust had settled and it had been positively identified as a Purple Sandpiper, I knew I couldn’t miss my chance to see this bird for myself. Late Friday afternoon I headed down to Inglewood Bird Sanctuary where Eddy had found it the first time, and spent about an hour photographing it, digiscoping it, and just observing its behaviour. Sadly, it was gone the very next day, disappointing many who had gone out early in the weekend in hopes to see it.

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Sightings & Rare Birds

We don't post lists of sightings here since the Listserv Albertabird does a great job of it. It's an excellent place to read about recent sightings, share your lists and report rare birds. You can read the messages without joining, but if you want to post your sightings you'll have to join the group Albertabird . See the RSS feed below.